1976 saw no significant new trend in any of the visual or performing arts

1976 saw no significant new trend in any of the visual or performing arts

While no significant new trend in any of the visual or performing arts was evident the year saw shifts in emphasis and style. Our arts correspondent assesses the trends in the arts in the light of a whole generation of artistes and performers and discusses the emerging changes in terms of music, dance, theatre and the cinema.

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Bindu Batra

April 18, 2015

ISSUE DATE: December 31, 1976

UPDATED: April 22, 2015 11:56 IST

Krishnamurti - an innovative spirit

On the face of it, 1976 has been very much like the years preceding it. No new movement is in evidence on the artistic scene. But then, the arts have the uncomfortable habit of reflecting the milieu from which they emanate. While, at their best, they may help one to recognize and change reality, they tend to follow socio-cultural movements, rather than to create them.

The lack of an artistic movement is thus a reflection of the absence of a cultural movement in the country. Not that this is a new thing. The last cultural movement that we had, grew out of the Bhakti philosophy. It affected all the arts, leading to inspired developments in music, theatre, poetry and dance. So deep was the influence that it is in evidence till today and can be discerned even in the relatively modern art of cinema.

The social decadence that accompanied the decline of the Mughals was hardly an apt background out of which a movement could emerge. The religious reform movements of the 19th century served their cause for a brief moment and then joined the galaxy of religious sects that exist in India. There were some further flashes of genius, epitomized by men like Uday Shankar and Tagore, but they failed to affect the country as a whole.

Sultana - changing colours

The sad fact is that cultural movements in colonial and post-colonial societies often have to be prodded into existence by political movements. The change from a social system run by religious sanction to one governed by secular law is a painful process. At its best, it emerges gradually through the social evolution of a free people. But when the process has been curbed by enslavement, it is the politically motivated who set the tone and define the pace of cultural regeneration for quite a while.

The Freedom Movement had within it the seeds of such a regeneration but, in a sense, it achieved its political goals too soon. The British were thrown out. The socio-cultural revolution, however, remained incomplete. If Independence brought with it the responsibility of completing the task, it also heightened the awareness of lost time.

Within the scramble for progress that understandably ensued, culture got short shrift even in those areas essential for the achievement of progress. The system of education was not revamped. No clear-cut cultural policy was either enunciated or followed. Even the attempt to move towards the evolution of a link language, other than English, was so ham-handed that it failed.

Ali Akbar - paragon of excellence

The problem was not that the intentions were wrong. Nor did it arise alone from an absence of the infra-structure required to put such a large-scale project into operation. It emerged rather from the inability to involve the people sufficiently in the process of development. With the death of Gandhi, the one man who could have taken the ideals of free India to the grass roots and given them the strength of a mass movement had passed into history.

Viewed against this backdrop, it is little wonder that the arts have either not evolved or done so in a haphazard manner. Where they have remained traditional, the trend has been towards the rediscovery of extant styles with the object of arriving at a deeper and more varied expression. Where there has been an attempt at experimentation, the concern has largely narrowed itself down to the quest for a synthesis with western aesthetics.

This is particularly evident in dance. On the one hand, there has been a revival of classical styles and, given the great artists that we have among us, the results are by all means laudatory. Changes have been incorporated, to the distress of hardened purists, but this has happened strictly within the classical mould.

Dancers like Yamini Krishnamurti, Swapnasundari, Roshan Kumari, Uma Sharma, Sonal Mansingh, reflect this trend today. Padma Subramanyam's work is apparently a departure but, as she herself confesses, it is drawn out of traditions that had died a few hundred years ago.

Mohan Rakesh's modern epic 'Adhe Adhure'

On the other hand, there is the attempt towards modernization which appears in the form of the dance-drama. Originating in the inspired work of Uday Shankar (which now, alas, has no more than historical importance), the idea of the dance-drama has degenerated into an unflattering conglomeration of styles without anything modern in the way of sensibility. This is where the desire for synthesis is most in evidence.

This also is where its failure is particularly glaring. Sachin Shankar's ballets are an excruciating example, despite the reputation he enjoys. Nor are the dance-dramas in the classical style any more commendable. On the contrary, it is strange that even an artist of the genius and eminence of Birju Maharaj displays a shocking lack of taste and ideas when he choreographs a ballet.

In music the development has been somewhat better. For one thing, greater talents have emerged in this field than in most other arts. This may have something to do with the continuity that music has enjoyed over the centuries. Here again there have been innovations within classical conventions and the results have been both rich and satisfying.

Lili Chakraborty in Ray's 'Jana Aranya'

Ustad Ali Akbar Khan represents the consciousness of today's older generation and we have yet to find a younger artist to excel him. However, classicism continues in the music of exponents like Kishori Amonkar, Jitendra Abhishekhi, Pandit Jasraj, Ustad Amjad Ali Khan, to name but a few. Greater innovations of style belong to musicians like Kumar Gandharva but here again the sensibility remains traditional.

It is often said, even in connection with as gifted a young singer as Parween Sultana, that our musical culture is on the decline. Former methods of training are fading away with apparently negative results. But times are changing and, as we move more effectively into the jet age, it is only natural that our expression should be modified.

On the popular level this is already happening with remarkable competence. The Hindi film song, at its best, is a noble extension of popular musical culture and aptly reflects the sensibility of today. This is an area where the business of synthesis has achieved a certain dignity.

In theatre, the scene is somewhat dull. But this is due more to a lack of finance than of ideas. We do have some modern playwrights of commendable calibre. Girish Karnad, Vijay Tendulkar, Badal Sircar, have meanwhile been joined by others like Achyut Vaze, Suresh Alekar and Mohit Chattopadhyay.

Shabana Azmi and Nasiruddin Shah in Benegal's 'Nishant'

Their inability to live off their writing, however, poses problems that lead them to diffuse their talents into other disciplines. The same applies to directors, actors and theatre people on the whole. Indeed, the only stage activity that consistently pays its way is what has come to be known as the "commercial" theatre.

As an extension of the Natak Company, it is imbued with a certain vitality and professionalism. But, competing as it does with the Hindi film, it has tended towards cheapness in content and style. The merits of the commercial theatre in Maharashtra and Bengal are completely absent in what is "commercial" in Delhi. Prem Jullundhry of the Punjabi theatre attracts vast audiences. But his is an upstart theatre, lacking in dramatic values and even showmanship.

In the "non-commercial" theatre, two major trends are discernible. The one draws upon the principles of modern western drama (Tughlaq, Adhe Adhure, Shantata Court Chalu Ahe), the other upon the structure of the traditional Indian play (Hayavadana, Ghasiram Kotwal, Mahanirvan). At their best, both express the consciousness of modern India but the latter naturally enjoys a wider appeal.

To an extent the principles of traditional drama are also evident in the popular Hindi film. But then so are the norms that governed Hollywood. All this, mingled with contemporary foreign trends of cinema, constitutes the most influential medium of entertainment in the country. Here again is a case where synthesis has failed to develop a worthwhile style.

Plagiarism is on the increase and, when it includes an imitation of content as well as of form, it tends to acquire socially dangerous proportions. Luckily, however, the Benegals and Karnads and Karanths also flourish on the side and work towards a more significant cinema. Chomuna Dudi, Nishant and to some extent even Chhoti Si Baat are films of which we can be proud, not to speak of Satyajit Ray's Jana Aranya.

Yet, even this new cinema is not inspired by any cultural movement. The year 1976 has failed to change this tragic fact. However, there appears to be the beginning of a reassessment of priorities by the government. Moral depravity is severely under attack.

Corruption is being punished. A campaign has been launched to eradicate various vices that had sunk into the fabric of our society. At the same time, an attempt is underway to restore the self-confidence which was lost in the years of colonial rule. What is foreign is not necessarily the best, is the slogan these days. In cinema this has taken the shape of a ban on senseless, "imported" violence.

The next step now is to turn our concern for cultural uplift into a pragmatic policy. We still do not have a Gandhi to ensure that its implementation will start at the grass roots. But we do have the infrastructure of communications to make mass participation possible. If this happens, the year 1976 will be remembered for the shift in emphasis that eventually launched us on the course of achieving the socio-cultural revolution that Independence failed to bring.

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